The New Wu-Tang Clan Album Should Not Happen

Of late, Wu-Tang Clan leader RZA has been acting with a single-minded purpose: making a new Wu-Tang album happen, against all odds. He's already titled it A Better Tomorrow and dropped a couple singles to promote the album; even as projected release dates have come and gone, he's admitted he's struggled to get the other eight members in a room together.

Nominally, this would be get us excited. Even though Wu-Tang's last few collaborative efforts have been mixed affairs, the individual members involved have been firing on all cylinders for several years now. However, there are some very sold reasons this album should not happen at all.

Raekwon's Comments
Raekwon is one of the most talented members of Wu-Tang, and his opinion carries some serious weight when it comes to recording an album. Both he and Ghostface Killah have expressed reluctance to record a new record piloted by RZA, as well as stating their personal dissatisfaction with his recent production work, especially on Wu-Tang's last album 8 Diagrams.

While Ghost seems to have softened his stance, Chef remains unmoved. In a recent interview, he put his foot down and said flat out he wouldn't do an album with RZA shaping the direction of the product on his own.

RZA is unbending on his role as the leader of Wu-Tang and the architect of the Wu's sound. It seems unlikely he would bend to Rae's will on this, which means it's unlikely we'd hear much of the Chef on a new record. Ghost's contributions to A Better Tomorrow have also been described as very minimal.

A Wu-Tang record without Ghost and Rae? What's the point?

Photo by Jeremy Martin

GZA's Comments
While GZA apparently has no issues contributing, it's obvious his heart is not in it. His contributions to the recent Wu-Tang singles were mostly weak and unmotivated. His focus has been on his own Dark Matter project for years now, and he even copped to not being able to write given the rowdy environment of the recording sessions for A Better Tomorrow.

Wu-Tang should not do an album if their hearts aren't in it. That was the issue with early-'00s releases like Iron Flag. Given GZA's importance to the project, why go through with the record if he cannot commit fully?